Animated Level Crossings???

[eyore]

Is there a way to have RailWorks repeat a animation over and over again, or do i have to make a very long animation for my LC lights

Jaap

PS: full barriers for left side done

You could use a scrolling texture as described here http://railsimilarity.blogspot.com/2009 ... tures.html

[jaapsloot]

That is rather diffcult, since your (UK) LC's first show an orange light, then two red lights and then start flashing

Jaap

[AndiS]

Hi Andi, it wasn't meant to be a complaint rather in that i have never understood why animations are set to be so fast? Eg train doors, the speeds are unrealistic what is wrong in setting them as they would be in the real world? Is it only for effect? Dunno but it looks horrible imho.

And my post was not a complaint about the complaint.
I don't know about any train doors, never drive modern passenger trains.

But for the gates, I just assume that those who make them have some personal experience or videos. Anyway, I assume for myself to know nothing about either of the three prototypes. I have been to the Netherlands, but do not remember any closing gates. I will never make it to Chile. And most likely not to some preserved UK railway where they have such wooden gates.

Actually, I confess that the first thing I thought about the Dutch ones was "they don't stand that upright when open". But that, of course, was my Austrian bias. There is no reason for Dutch gates not to be really vertical when open.

At the same time, I really try to be positive about the adaptability. After all if the result should be fun for everyone and if you know how to clone an XML file and how to change a number in a Lua file, you earn having the assets in you own route tuned to your own preferences.

Regarding Pete's gates, it was said before that as long as there is no guy coming out of the hut and pushing the gates to the other side, realism is pretty lame anyway. I also demand drivers whole actions reflect the engine control changes and brakesmen reacting to the brake signals given with the whistle. Now!

Regarding the train doors, RSC recently mentioned that wagons (including coaches) can have Lua scripts now, too. Controlling the door animation is certainly one of the first things these scripts will be able to do. Another idea would be to play sound files based on location triggers. Either hard-coded (i.e., a list of global positions in the script), or triggered by messages sent by "signal" objects in the track on the approach to a station (message would include a parameter telling which station is approach here, as a number). But that is another story.


Jaap, certainly you need only one cycle. I guess the script is expected to start the animation again when it is completed. There is an animation for closed state already implemented but I don't remember right now if I implemented this restarting.

I would make the traffic lights a separate object anyway. Then, the route builder can place them where he wants to and as many as he likes (sometimes, they are around the corner if a street running in the tracks crosses them after a sharp bend). Also, the script would be a bit simpler if it would either control flashing lights or moving gates.

Flashing lights are generally implemented as switching them on and off in the script, unless you want to show the slow changeover from dark to full brightness that today's lights implement to make the light bulbs last longer. This switching on and off is very simple.

In both cases, I would need to know how complex your procedures are. So, you say: First orange light for a certain time, then two red lights for a certain time, then red flashing. How is this linked to the position of the gates? How long is each phase performed?

[Trainguy76]

Another idea for level crossings, would it be possible to force AI trains to use their horn either when passing whistle posts or track linked markers?

[jaapsloot]

Thank you for your answer

Just to note, those should be UK level crossings

Regarding the:

Actually, I confess that the first thing I thought about the Dutch ones was "they don't stand that upright when open". But that, of course, was my Austrian bias. There is no reason for Dutch gates not to be really vertical when open.

There is a reason: i a barrier already is lowered a bit, people tend to stop for them earlier


Jaap, certainly you need only one cycle. I guess the script is expected to start the animation again when it is completed. There is an animation for closed state already implemented but I don't remember right now if I implemented this restarting.

I would make the traffic lights a separate object anyway. Then, the route builder can place them where he wants to and as many as he likes (sometimes, they are around the corner if a street running in the tracks crosses them after a sharp bend). Also, the script would be a bit simpler if it would either control flashing lights or moving gates.

Flashing lights are generally implemented as switching them on and off in the script, unless you want to show the slow changeover from dark to full brightness that today's lights implement to make the light bulbs last longer. This switching on and off is very simple.

In both cases, I would need to know how complex your procedures are. So, you say: First orange light for a certain time, then two red lights for a certain time, then red flashing. How is this linked to the position of the gates? How long is each phase performed?

The lights are indeed a separate object.
The current state is:
-The orange lamp moves forward for 2 seconds and moves back. Then both red lights move forward and after 1 second, one of them disappears
This animation is used a closing animation (CLOSING_ANIMATION)

-The red lights flash for 2 seconds, but stop then, whereas they should continue
This animation is used a closed animation (CLOSED_ANIMATION)

-The red lights are both extinguished
This animation is used a closed animation (OPENING_ANIMATION)

These animations are all made by moving the lights out of and into the shield at the back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAqH1L7ZvBk

(forgot to turn of my music)

Hope this helps

Jaap

[AndiS]

Another idea for level crossings, would it be possible to force AI trains to use their horn either when passing whistle posts or track linked markers?

No, for AI trains there is no hope for nothing, I guess. Ok, it is more of a guess, but that guess says that they are just moved around based on a fixed acceleration/deceleration figure which is not even configurable like in MSTS and they are meant to be simple, to save resources and improve framerates.

However, you could trigger the sound stationary. And if you are very hot for it, I can give you a script that moves a sound source with the train for 200m. But I cannot test it, because I don't use any sound. But the script would be quite simple, so either it works or not. Actually, I have never turned on or off sound in a script. Some default semaphores have/had? sound some not. No idea, it just dropped beyond the horizon. But it can be done I guess.

On a second thought, I can only move the sound source on a straight line, not knowing anything about the track geometry.

And the sound would be played for player trains, too, which is really stupid. So maybe file it under "could have been an idea ...".

Jaap, you have PM.

[karma99]

The speed of my gates were simply what I considered was "ok" from an asthetic point of view, nothing more.
I'm rather short of film footage of old style gates operated from the signal box by hand ,and what speed they should be!

If it's really making people unhappy I can re-do the animations with more frames and post them as replacements... but seeing that RSDL are going to give us interactive gates (and it would seem quite soon from Derek's comments) I'm loathed to spend the time doing it for gates that will essentially be "thrown away" in the near future.
But speak up now if you want them slower, if enough people have an issue I'll put the wagons on hold for a bit and re-record the animations.

[AndiS]

That worry you can drop. The thrown-away part is mine, not yours. But I am fairly relaxed. I guess looking at the diversity of all the things we bring up in little time, they might well go with something that does something with scripting. Although by making the various parts independent crossings, like for the lights above, you could get away without any scripting. But then what do you link to the traffic? Anyway, not our problem, I guess. And looking at the past "already working on it but having other things to do as well" will give the current solution quite some lease of life.

One thing is sure. What ever the future brings, we will need shapes with animations. So the only thing you can possibly fear is if Derek inserts a gate competition between two engine competitions and he models all the gates of the UK in one night while Sly does the Continental ones. But again, I guess wait and see is a good strategy.

One could suggest that route builders don't put endless effort into hundreds of level crossings, but then again, how many are there anyway on any route? And replacing one implementation of a certain shape by another one (i.e., different blueprint and technology, but same shape) is quickly done for a dozen or two crossings.

[iceman2117]

hi, ...

One can thus also be nice to animate locomotive depots ...
Lok pure driving door to go and so on ..

greets ice

[longbow]

Most steam-era level crossings were operated mechanically from an adjacent signal box and interlocked with the signalling, so that it was not possible to clear a route through the crossing unless the gates were closed and locked. Thus the only time a train driver would see a crossing open would be if he was stopped at a home signal in front of a crossing, most likely where a level crossing was situated at a platform end, eg Paignton. I guess if the train was stopping the practice would be to keep the signal on and gates closed until it was ready to depart.

From the game point of view this means the ideal would be to have crossing opening linked to the preceding home signal rather than the movement of the train.

[AndiS]

The problem here is that this preceding signal will not be very clever in RW regarding the time when it clears. In practice, it will clear way before departure time, because it has no idea about departure time. Therefore, the gates would open for the train far too early.

I would have been half the work to just close the gates when the message to clear the next signal comes down the track (which should be exactly the time at which the signal protecting the gate clears. But I wanted people to see the gates in action.

[smarty2]

Hi everyone look at this my friends http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkGGoUgUgOE

[AndiS]

Ok, so no guy walking around. How disappointingly modern.

I most say that I did not consider underground mechanical parts at all, living in a country with real snow and real frost. Also, I assumed that the gates would be fixed somehow in their end position (on the doors themselves, not just fixing the handle in the signalbox, maybe). At the end, you nicely see how the door is "mostly open and practically aligned with the other one".

Anyway, cool to learn something new everyday with this hobby.

[davveb]

Most steam-era level crossings were operated mechanically from an adjacent signal box and interlocked with the signalling, so that it was not possible to clear a route through the crossing unless the gates were closed and locked. Thus the only time a train driver would see a crossing open would be if he was stopped at a home signal in front of a crossing, most likely where a level crossing was situated at a platform end, eg Paignton. I guess if the train was stopping the practice would be to keep the signal on and gates closed until it was ready to depart.

Indeed, and the same principal applies to modern crossings. I aways found it distracting with MSTS that you could be barreling down the track at 125mph and looking ahead see the crossing barriers were up and streams of cars were crossing the track! In reality if a driver saw this he would probably do the following things:
1 sound the horn
2 slam on the emergency brake
3 dive to the cab floor
4 say his prayers

Of course in MSTS at the last second the cars screech to a halt, the barriers drop and you sail through intact. Not realistic, but it seems to be what alot of users want.

Dave B

ps It's possible to change the speed of the animation by editing the frame rate parameter in the *.ban file, if users are particularly concerned to have the speed "just right".

[almark]

Quite a lot of crossing are like that without the signaller leaving his box,it's done from a wheel inside the box.